David Price Dominant In Debut For Blue Jays, Yankees Should Watch Out

Tanya Ray Fox 10:29 pm, August 03rd, 2015

David Price made his debut for the Toronto Blue Jays today and was as dominant as any team could want a shiny new trade-deadline acquisition to be. Price threw 119 pitches over eight innings and allowed just one run in his first game for his new team at Rogers Centre on Monday.

Can't hate that.

The five time All-Star and 2012 AL Cy Young recipient played his first six-and-a-half seasons in the majors with the Tampa Bay Rays before heading to Detroit as part of a trade in July of 2014. Price is very much at home in the AL East and therefore familiar with many of the best hitters he will be facing going forward as the Blue Jays battle it out with the Orioles and Rays to chase down the Yankees and/or a wild card spot. (Sorry Red Sox you don't even count right now. Womp womp)

With 11 strikeouts in Monday's 5-1 rout of the Twins, Price extended his lead for the most 8+ inning, 10+ strikeout performances by active pitchers since 2014.

https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/628341180984504320

That's an incredible number when you consider how difficult it is to remain consistent and durable across an MLB season. If he keeps pitching like this, the Yankees may want to start looking over their shoulders. The Blue Jays and Yankees will play six games over the course of nine days, starting with a three-game series in New York that begins on Aug. 7th.

Of the seven players on the Yankees roster with 10 or more at bats versus Price, only two have a batting average of over .239 against him; Jacoby Ellsbury (51 at bats, .353) and Brian McCann (16 at bats, .563). The other five include Mark Teixeria, Alex Rodriguez, Brett Gardner and Carlos Beltran.

Of course no other lineup in the MLB has more at bats against Price than the Yankees; which means as comfortable as Price is with them, they are equally as familiar with him. In 254 combined at bats, Price has allowed a respectable 67 hits, 8 HR and 27 RBI versus this current Yankees roster. Taking all this into consideration, the upcoming two series between the Blue Jays and the Yankees in the battle for the AL East should be nothing if not interesting.